Imponderables rule the roost in Maharashtra

The Maharashtra government formation picture is becoming murkier and murkier. A pre-poll pact that was ordinarily expected to result in a smooth retention of power in the hands of the BJP-Shiv Sena has got messed up in mud-slinging, bickering and unholy deals for power. That behind the goings-on is a father’s effusive love for his son assuming the reins of power is a manifestation of politics in its crudest form. The result is that both the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are fishing in troubled waters while Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray smells power for his party and the BJP which was over-confident in its arrogance does not know where to look.

The Shiv Sena contends that a rotational scheme for chief ministership had been worked out by Uddhav, BJP’s Amit Shah and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as part of the deal before the elections under which the chief minister was to be from the BJP for two and a half years and from the Sena for the other half of the coming term. Fadnavis denies such a deal flatly and insists that he, as leader of the largest party in the assembly would head the government for the full term. Having fought the elections clearly with the Congress and NCP arrayed against them, the Sena is now cosying up to them to form the government in the State, defying the public mandate. While reports say that the Shiv Sena and the NCP could form a coalition with the Congress supporting the arrangement from outside, the BJP is talking of splitting the Sena and forming a government with the breakaway group. The Governor’s role could soon come into play since the term of the current assembly is until November 8 but there are imponderables galore.